Wick News Service

NACO, Sonora — Two candidates for mayor of this border town in Mexico are currently tied as winners of the election that took place Sunday.

As of Monday evening, Manuel Madrid of the National Action Party (PAN), the town’s treasurer, and Oscar Ozuna of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), a school teacher, were tied with 1,274 votes each, according to Sonora’s electoral counsel.

A recount will be conducted. At this point in time, it is not clear when the winner will be announced. However, that person will take office in mid-September.

The remaining votes went to candidates for three other parties. The Convergence Party (PC) took 91 votes, the Labor Party (PT) had 74 votes, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) ended up with 30 votes, according to the electoral counsel.

Lorenzo “Chovy” Villegas, Naco’s mayor, took a break for the past few months to campaign for Guillermo Padres, PAN’s candidate for governor. Victor Tarango Sandoval, the town’s second chief, has been filling in for Villegas, according to Mirador newspaper.

Villegas was mayor from 2000 until 2003 and again from 2006 until this year. Mexican law does not allow mayors to serve consecutive terms. From 2003 to 2006, the PRI was in power in Naco.

Meanwhile, the outcomes of the mayoral elections in Agua Prieta and Cananea are final, according to the state’s electoral counsel.

In Agua Prieta, Vicente Teran Uribe, of the Social Democrata Party (PSD) won with 11,103 votes. He did not get support from the PRI, so he ran under the PSD. He won in a landslide against Luis Alonso Osuna of the PAN, who got 7,096 votes, Hector Durazo Montano of the PRI, who received 5,435 votes, and three other candidates.

In Cananea, Reginaldo Moreno of the PRI, a retired school teacher, won with 6,242 votes. His closest competitor was Pancho Garcia of the PAN, who received 4,921 votes. Garcia has served twice as mayor of Cananea and twice as Sonora congressman.